Ranma, the Naive Succubus 05: Maneuvering for Position
by Narsil
Summary: It's been almost two weeks since Akane beat Kodachi, and for the moment things are quiet. But their list of problems hasn't grown shorter, and as Nabiki worries about Ranma's adjustment to his/her new nature as a succubus and Nodoka tries to solve a murder over a decade old, a Gosunkugi Hikaru with problems of his own maneuvers for advantage. And meanwhile Mara waits. **On hiatus**
1. Curses, foiled again!

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

Tatsuno (since the official name change) Ranma glanced around the dojo from where the new/young succubus floated in one corner. The open room looked very different from its usual airy openness. The sun had set so the light was the soft glow of the candles and braziers bordering various circles combined with the outside night to form walls to replace those the succubus could barely see.

Those multi-colored sand and chalk circles faintly glowing with residual magic took up most of the floor space, two large circles in the middle with three smaller circles bordered by braziers for the three Amazon elders on one side and two more bordered by candles for Nabiki and Nodoka on the other, leaving the larger circles in the middle to an ordered outline of flowers and crystals. The smaller circles and one of the larger ones were pasted onto large paper mats, leaving only one on the bare polished wooden floor. (The Amazon elders had been impressed with the concept of the circle mats when asked to help create theirs, and Ku Lon and Dao Paz had promptly started discussing the possibility of woven circle mats before Lo Shun had dryly suggested they focus on preparations for the ceremony first.)

Ranma's lover and mother were both dressed in the robes that Nodoka called her working uniform. Like the dojo's walls those robes were translucent, but the kanji embroidered along the edges and the katanas both wore shone with power (though Nabiki looked less than comfortable with the extra weight, unnecessary this time but Nodoka insisted for the sake of building good habit). To Ranma's succubus vision both women seemed to radiate magic (they had spent most of the day in meditation and ritual cleansing preparing for the night's ritual, and Ranma was still slightly grumpy about not being able to skip the half-Saturday of school like Nabiki), so much so that she had trouble making out their faces — and in the case of her mother she was careful to look _only_ at her face; she was getting accustomed to her attraction to the apparently bare bodies constantly on display while she was a nature spirit (which was most of the time), but she didn't _want_ to get used to feeling that attraction to her mother's exercise-shaped nakedness.

The Amazon elders, too, had spent the day performing their own cleansing rituals. But for the three of them, it had involved performing a series of group dances performed on the grass of the Tendo yard between house and dojo to the double-beat of drums hammered out by one of their warriors and her husband (softly, to avoid disturbing Nabiki and Nodoka inside the house), interspersed with chants while kneeling and bathing in pungent smoke from braziers kept fed by other warriors and their husbands.

In fact, the only Amazons not involved were Shan Pu and Pa Fum, and the only reason the Champion and her wife were guarding the camp was in case their wandering husband returned. (Akane wasn't involved, either. But however unhappy she was about not being involved, her still-healing ankle precluded it.)

Now those five smaller circles were all occupied by their intended recipients, all radiating an oddly peaceful tension except Nabiki, who was just tense. Ranma spared her lover a soft smile where the middle Tendo stood in her circle beside her sensei, her sprite familiar sitting on her shoulder and katana on loan from Nodoka at her waist. Seeing Nabiki's and Nodoka's nods, Ranma refocused on the large circle toward the middle of the dojo, the one that _wasn't_ pasted on paper. There in the center lay Genma on his back, his massive bear arms and legs circling Dr. Tofu lying on top of him. The kanpo was blindfolded with a gag locking a mouth guard in place, his body bound by leather and cloth cords and even wrapped with some chains they'd managed to locate. It was the best they could to, and they'd just have to hope it was enough.

Everyone looked as ready as they could be. Ranma called out, "We're ready."

Instantly, Kasumi rushed through the dojo's open door, her simple white robe billowing about her legs and brown hair still damp-dark from her own purifying bath sticking to her neck and back, radiating equal parts fear and hope. She paused at the edge of the empty large circle pasted on paper, hiked up her robe, and stepped to the middle to carefully lie down. She took several deep breaths for steadying calm and nodded, a nod perhaps only Ranma saw thanks to her ability to _see_ the life energy of all living things — but in this case, that light actually seemed to be dimming as the same dark, ugly, slimy aura seemed to ooze from her, reaching for and intermingling with the same terrible aura from a suddenly thrashing Dr. Tofu, fighting against the Panda's arms and legs pinning him in place. _Damn, so much fer the blindfold keepin' him from knowing she's there_, Ranma thought as she softly called out, "Go, we're good!"

The Amazon men lining the back wall behind their Elders instantly started beating a low, complex rhythm and small drums as their wives chanted in a language Ranma had never heard before, or anything like it — whatever it was, it no relation to the Japanese she knew or the Chinese she'd heard on the last stages of the training trip. The Elders started their own chant, their voices merging with those of their warriors. And ... it was working! Those horrible auras linking Kasumi and Dr. Tofu wasn't growing any less, but they were ... pulling apart? Tofu's fit seemed to be easing off a little — and Nodoka and Nabiki joined in.

Nodoka and the Elders had had several long discussions over the past almost two weeks since Akane's victory over Kodachi, but in the end they couldn't see any way for them to join together in a single ceremony — the worldview underlying their respective rituals were simply too different to be merged, at least not in the time they had. So instead, they had divided the night's work into two spheres of responsibility, and as the Elders fought to mitigate the impact of the curse on Tofu Nodoka and Nabiki's voices rose in a chant that Nodoka had worked out and then Nabiki had translated into Esperanto to attack the curse itself — and ... it was working!

Ranma's hands brushed her floating fiery-red hair back out of her face, away from her eyes, holding the breath she didn't actually need as she stared. The curse's black aura was fading, becoming more translucent, the slimy feeling that made her want to take a bath fading! And more important, the Doc's writhing was easing off. Her fists clenched and a manic grin spread across her face as a wave of joyful triumph from the others washed over her.

But the curse seemed to realize it was under assault, almost as if it was alive, and it began to cast off additional streamers from both Kasumi and Dr. Tofu, fighting to connect, to strengthen the link. The triumphalism faded, turned desperate as the volume of the Elders' voices raised to fight against the curses' attempt to rejoin, and began to drown out the chanting of their Japanese counterparts. Nabiki's voice faltered for a heartbeat as the Amazons' rhythm interfered with her own and the fading curses darkened for a moment before she recovered, then her and Nodoka's voices grew louder as they fought to avoid being drowned out. The two chants mingled and clashed, one thread of the multitude streaming from Kasumi snapped through to connect with Tofu and with a burst of mania that made Ranma wince he began to convulse — and with a wet crack both bones in his right forearm snapped.

Instantly, Nodoka broke off her chant to shout, "Kasumi, out, now!" The paper foundation for the ritual circle tore as the eldest Tendo daughter sprang to her feet and rushed from the room into the night-darkened yard, and Nodoka sighed as the chanting and drumbeats from the rest broke off. She turned to her currently-daughter to find Ranma shaking from the whipsawing backlash of emotions she'd just been through. Nabiki walked over to pull her fiancé into a hug as Peach Fuzz flew a circle around the pair before settling on her fellow nature spirit's shoulder to rub her head against Ranma's cheek. Nodoka joined them, wrapping her own arms around them in a group hug, but waited until Ranma fought her shivering under control before stepping back and asking, "What did you see?"

Ranma reported in a tight, over-controlled voice, shivering in Nabiki's arms as she remembered that disgusting, slimy feeling of the curse brushing across her, and felt her fiancée's arms tighten around her. She wiggled for a moment, luxuriating in the feeling of soft skin on skin through the robes and trying to ignore the bitter disappointment Nabiki was radiating.

"We were so close!" the middle Tendo burst out when Ranma finished.

"No, child, we were not."

Ranma looked down at the shrunken, ancient woman balancing on her staff. The succubus had been so caught up in her lover's embrace and attempting to push away the memory of the disgusting touch of the curse her retelling had invoked that she hadn't sensed the approach of the blazing torch of Ku Lon's ki. "What d'ya mean?" she asked.

"Just what I said," Ku Lon snarled, then sucked in a deep breath as she fought her own disappointment under control. "The curse's resistance rose to match our own strength," she finally continued, "and I did not sense any diminution in its increase as it did so. I suspect it would have been able to continue to do so however strong our own attempt was — whatever demon was responsible for this curse, we cannot match its raw power."

"So that's it?" Ranma asked. "There's nothin' we can do fer Kasumi an' the Doc?"

Nodoka glanced over at the other large multi-colored circle and smiled approvingly when she found the Amazon men were already dealing with unbinding a once again sane Tofu, one of them supporting him on his feet and another keeping his broken arm steady as a third unwrapped him while around them their warrior wives snuffed out the candles. The circle was hopelessly smeared, but it wasn't like they'd be trying again anytime soon if at all ... not _this_ way. "No, that's not 'it'," she replied, returning her attention to her disappointed child, running her fingers through Ranma's shiny-soft hair. "It just means we won't be able to defeat the curse by overpowering it. Every curse has a weak point, a loose-hanging thread one can pull on to unravel it, we simply have to find it."

Nabiki sighed. "So much for the easy way." She twisted her head to get Ranma's hair out of her face, then looked down at Ku Lon over her armful's shoulder. "But you did your part, I'll have the rest of your payment to you tomorrow when Ranma and I pass the park on the way to the train station."

"Oh?" Nodoka queried, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Ranma and I still need to return those scrolls Genma stole from the Buddhist temple in Nekomi. I thought we'd make a day of it." Nabiki's eyes met Nodoka's over Ranma's head, and Nodoka nodded. However serene a front Kasumi might put up, she had to be mourning over the night's failure. Returning the scrolls was the perfect excuse for getting the two empaths out of the dojo for the day while hiding the fact that they were avoiding their grieving sister/future sister-in-law.

"Very well, no training tomorrow. But you leave _after_ you help clean up the dojo," Nodoka added. "But that's for the morning, tonight Kasumi is going to need us."


	2. A Second First Meeting

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

Ranma sighed with relief as he and Nabiki exited the train at Nekomi. It had been a long ride, and Ranma had felt himself winding more and more tightly with every passing minute. He and Nabiki had been surrounded by strangers pressed close by the crowd, and he had been unable to stop trying to see in every direction at once for any possible incoming threats — with only civilians around and everyone so crammed together he couldn't differentiate one ki source from another. Only Nabiki's hasty grab had kept him from sucker-punching one boy not much older than the pair that had stumbled and bumped into him. But now they were off the train and the crowd had spread out, and he wasn't trapped in a steel box with no sight lines. He could feel his tension draining away along with Nabiki's loosening grip on his arm.

Hefting the backpack slung over his shoulder with the stolen scrolls they were returning to the Buddhist temple, he forced a smile that he knew wouldn't fool her in the slightest — she still had her empathy even if he didn't — and asked, "Which way?"

The earth-haired girl in shorts and a T-shirt glanced around as they left the station to orient the street with her memory of the map she'd pulled up online before they'd left the dojo, then tugged him toward their left. "This way."

He relaxed still more as they walked along, and he scanned the neighborhood around them. It was a peaceful place, quiet, shade trees along the sidewalks, individual homes with the occasional store and apartment building, a park with children playing. And they'd left all the insanity behind them in Nerima. As the minutes passed Nabiki's hand relaxed even more, until she let go of his arm and reached down to take hold of his hand. He had to admit that, while it wasn't as good as being in succubus form and basking in the love that Nabiki radiated whenever they were together, the outing was turning out to be rather nice.

Then he recognized the street they were on from the online map's street view, looked around — yes, those were the steps leading up to the temple, and they did seem vaguely familiar so it was probably the right place — it looked like Nabiki would be able to forgive Morimasa's debt. He wasn't looking forward to the explaining how he had the scrolls, even if he could lay the blame at his father's feet, but he was eager to get it over with. And apparently Nabiki had picked up on his eagerness, her hand slipping free of his as he bound up the steps.

As he reached the top of the steps he felt _something_ sweep through him and paused, frowning. That had felt tantalizingly familiar, but not —

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

At the childish-sounding if peremptory demand, Ranma glanced around. The first thing he saw was some sort of robot that looked like someone had tried to make a painted steel statue out of balls and tubing, with a Samurai jingasa perched on the ball serving as its head and circles for eyes and a straight line for a mouth drawn with a marker. But as bizarre as that mannequin was, what really drew Ranma's attention was the young raven-haired child standing beside the robot. Presumably she was the one that had made the demand, and she was glaring up with him with her hands on her hips with what was clearly supposed to be a stern frown. She failed miserably. For one, she didn't even come up to what passed for the robot's shoulder, much less Ranma's. Second, she was dressed in a fairly conservative school uniform, with a blue knee-length dress and white under-blouse with puffy sleeves. Combined with her unblemished, fresh-faced beauty, she looked incredibly _cute_ — like a kitten trying to face down its mama. But what _really_ had Ranma staring at her wide-eyed was that she had no more ki than the robot beside her.

"Well?" she demanded when Ranma failed to respond.

Ranma shook himself free of his shock — since getting cursed he'd been introduced to a whole new world, so he supposed even an obviously living child without any life force was somehow possible — and swung his backpack down off his shoulder. "Hi, I'm Sao — uh, Tatsuno Ranma," he said with a smile. "Do you know where the head priest is? I have some scrolls for him."

"There are no priests here, haven't been for years," the child replied.

"Oh." Ranma frowned thoughtfully, then shrugged. "Well, I'll just talk to your parents, see if they know how I can contact the priests that used ta live here." He strode around the girl and continued along the walkway toward a building that he definitely recognized. Yep, this was the right place.

"Wait, it's not — stop!"

A hand trailing fire flashed into view from behind Ranma. It was attached to a flexible metal cord of some sort, and quickly circled around him several times, managing to bind one of his arms to his side before going taut to stop him in his tracks.

Ranma turned around to find the metal cord attached to the girl by a now-handless wrist. "Another robot," he said, smirking, "that explains the lack a' ki. One problem with usin' a cord that's tied ta you, though, it's also tied ta me." Even as her eyes widened he grabbed the metal cord and _yanked_. She shrieked as she flew through the air toward him, but he was already falling onto his back. His feet slammed into her stomach and catapulted her over him until the cord snapping tight brought her to an abrupt halt in mid-air. She dropped straight down onto the stone walkway with a resounding thud.

Ranma rose to his feet and unwound the cord around him by the hand at its end as the girl-bot pushed herself up on shaking arms. "That'll teach ya —" he started to say just before catching the faint sound behind him of metal on rock. Dodging to one side, he barely got out of the way as a massive hammer wielded by the ball-bot slammed down where he had been standing. Its straight line for a mouth had been rubbed off and replaced with a frown.

Ranma backed up as the ball-bot approached, slipping his backpack with the scrolls off his shoulders. He glanced toward the entrance to the grounds to find a wide-eyed Nabiki standing there staring at them, and grinned. "Hey Nabs, catch!" he threw her the backpack and charged toward the ball-bot, just as a high-pitched shriek rose from the building.

"Sigel!"

/\

Nabiki stood staring up the stairs leading to the temple she and Ranma had come to visit as her fiancé bound up the steps.

This wasn't the first temple Nabiki had visited since her Awakening, she had wanted to find out if there was any overlap between the sacred and the supernatural and so had visited both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. The results had been ... inconclusive. She had felt _something_, welcoming and with a shining purity like nothing she had believed could possibly exist. By that time she had already begun summoning imps to dig up the dirt she needed to protect herself and punish her enemies, though, and had felt distinctly uncomfortable. Still, though she wouldn't have wanted to risk the possible backlash from failing a curse against someone on holy ground, she hadn't sensed anything specifically protective in nature.

That was definitely not the case here — to both sight and Sight, the wards on _this_ temple (and they _were_ true wards) were a dazzling tower, and their overwhelming power and purity had been enough to freeze her in place.

And _she hadn't sensed a thing_ until she'd turned to look up those steps.

Ranma disappeared out of sight at the top by the time Nabiki shook herself free from her shock, and she hesitated before forcing herself to start up the steps. Ranma was already up there, and while he ought to be all right on his own for a minute or so — they _were_ returning stolen property, after all — he was far from the most diplomatic person she knew. She _really_ wished she hadn't asked Peach Fuzz to stay behind and watch over Akane, not that she had any idea what her sprite familiar could do to help here.

Sshe reached the top of the stairs just in time to see her fiancé dodge out of the way of a descending hammer wielded by the oddest-looking robot she'd even seen!

"Hey, Nabs, catch!"

She caught the backpack with the scrolls out of pure reflex then dropped her arm to dangle it from one hand as she watched a laughing Ranma effortlessly dodge another swing of the hammer even as a young raven-haired girl with oval blue hollow tattoos on her cheeks and forehead ran out of the temple. The newcomer knelt by _another_ robot pushing itself up from the stone path, then rose to her feet and shouted something Nabiki didn't catch before summoning a round object seemingly out of nowhere to hurl at Ranma. (At least, Nabiki assumed it was a robot — it looked like a little girl, but not many girls had a hand lying yards away from her, attached to her wrist by a metallic-looking cord.)

Ranma had just sprung back from another clumsy swing of the hammer, and now he leap toward the flying ball, catching it and twisting to hurl it at the robot made out of balls and pipes. The resulting explosion sent both Ranma and the robot bouncing across the lawn in opposite directions.

Nabiki started to giggle helplessly. What was it with Ranma and random fights? _Not fair, there was nothing random about Ryoga or Kodachi showing up. But life's sure been more exciting since she first showed up. Though this one might be more random than most —_

"Skuld, what is going on out here!? This is no time to — you!"

Nabiki turned at the exclamation to find a skimpily-clad, breathtakingly beautiful woman — tall, tanned, platinum blonde — that had just stepped out of the temple now staring at her with eyes gone wide ... and _this_ woman had an upside down triangle tattoo on her forehead and one just below each eye — _blue_ tattoos. Nabiki felt herself go light-headed as she connected them with the elongated _red_ diamond tattoos Mara had sported on her forehead and cheeks, and the incredible wards protecting this temple. And like Mara, she couldn't sense her presence at all. _Oh god..._

Or rather, _goddess_. Nabiki was abruptly remembering in sharp detail every schoolmate she had threatened, the money she had extorted, the false friends she had ruined. She began to tremble. She hadn't brought her best defense against surprise encounters with the supernatural on their outing — while Nodoka had come up with a version of the obscurity glamour Gosunkugi had cast on his shed at Furinkan High for the scabbards of their enchanted katanas but while Nabiki had tested it during the past week, she couldn't be sure if everyone's apparent obliviousness to her walking around with a katana across her back had been the glamour at work or their 'that's Nerima' attitude and hadn't wanted to test it on an all-day trip across Tokyo. Though if the wards were anything to go by the enchantments on her katana might only anger the goddess in front of her. _Or amuse her_ —

Then another young woman stepped out of the temple, not quite as tall as the other with long, earth-colored hair, a beauty less lush but more ... inviting? And with her own blue tattoos, a stretched diamond like Mara's between her eyes and triangles under each eye like the goddess she'd followed. And also psychically invisible. "Urd, who are you speaking to?" Then her gaze fell on Nabiki, and she winced. "Oh, dear."

Nabiki's legs gave out, and she yelped as she fell backward and her butt smacked down onto the path's stony surface.

The latest goddess immediately hurried over, offering a hand to help Nabiki up, Urd sauntering along behind her. The brunette said, "I'm Belldandy. I am so sorry, we didn't mean to frighten you."

Nabiki held up the backpack. "Uh ... we brought the scrolls back?"

Urd and Belldandy exchanged confused looks, but Belldandy accepted the backpack. Slinging it over one shoulder, she again offered a hand up. "Why don't you come inside for some tea? You can explain just what scrolls you are returning. Urd — ?"

"Sure, I'll watch the children, keep the damage down," the platinum blonde said, then winced as the ball-robot slammed into a large tree bordering the temple grounds. " ... somehow."

/\

Nabiki stared down at the tea cup in her hand, a tear trickling down one cheek. She whispered, "That is the _best_ tea I've ever tasted in my entire life."

"Thank you," Belldandy replied from where she knelt at the other side of the low table. She took another sip of her own tea before setting the cup down in its saucer. "You spoke of scrolls you are returning?"

"Yes." Nabiki set down her own tea cup. "Ranma and I recently found the scrolls his father stole, from here and other places, and are trying to return them."

"I see," Belldandy replied thoughtfully. "That may explain why there was only one priest here when I and my fiancé arrived — with the theft of the scrolls, this temple went into decline. You can leave them with us, and I'll try to locate one of the monks that used to live here."

"Don't you know?" Nabiki asked. "I mean ... you recognized me and, and so did the other one, the wards on this place are incredible, and ..." She hesitantly motioned at her face.

"Ah." With a gentle smile, Belldandy reached up to touch a blue triangle under one eye. "Yes, we're color-coded. So Mara has made her offer, then? And you haven't accepted yet, or the wards would have registered your affiliation when you passed through them. But no, we aren't all-knowing, and I and my sisters are a little out of touch here."

"But if you're out of touch, how did you know me?" Nabiki protested, then winced as the house shook when something or someone crashed through the outer wall somewhere beyond their room. She held her breath, then sighed with relief at the sound of Ranma's laughter from outside. _At least _one_ of us is having a good time_, she thought, smiling softly. It had been less than a week since the Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts competition, but all she could remember hearing from Ranma even from days before that had been the high, clear laughter of her succubus form — also delightful, admittedly, but not the deep (well ... _deeper_, anyway) rumble of the hunk that was his original form. Nabiki missed it. _Enough! Get your head back in the game_. She refocused on her hostess, and on seeing nothing more than a wry smile at the ongoing property damage (and noting to herself that leaning on her empathic sense was making her visually lazy) asked again, "Why do you know about me? I can't be _that_ important!"

"Don't sell yourself short," Belldandy replied, before lifting her tea cup for another sip of her cooling tea.

Nabiki followed suit, and closed her eyes for a blissful, relaxing moment, before refocusing on the goddess. She cocked an inquiring eyebrow.

Belldandy fidgeted, then put her tea cup down again with a sigh and reluctantly said, "Still, I wouldn't have known about you if I hadn't been temporarily assigned to your case."

" 'Temporarily assigned'?" Nabiki carefully set down the tea cup, mind racing. "You were the reason Ranma kept showing up. You messed with my summoning circles, didn't you? Why?"

"To give you a choice of futures."

Nabiki had felt herself growing tighter and tighter as she'd thought back over the past weeks, she could _see_ the strings, her and Ranma dancing like puppets, but the goddess's last statement yanked her up short. Everything she'd experienced since before her Awakening screamed at her that she was being played, but she _wanted_ to believe ... and she remembered the wards over the temple — not just their power, but their _purity_ — and relaxed. _Even if I am being played, I am _not_ going to complain about the results_. "So you set me up for Mara's offer?"

Belldandy blinked, then shook her head. "No, I set you up with Ranma, I was unaware that Mara had visited you." She frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then slowly nodded as the gentle smile from earlier reappeared. "But upon reflection I cannot say why I am surprised. Before you met Ranma Mara could simply wait until the untimely death that was your probable fate, then make you her offer when your soul descended to Niflheim. Now she must no longer be certain of your final destination, and so has to move while you are still alive. I expected her to attempt to manipulate your circumstances to undo my own tweaking, but it seems she was wiser than that."

"Huh." Nabiki stared down at her own by-now-cool tea, a broad grin spreading across her face as she processed what Belldandy had said. Mara had been certain of her damnation before, and wasn't any longer — and that meant she was salvageable! That alone was worth the long train ride to reach the temple and the equally long ride home, however disappointingly ... uncomfortable Ranma had been. She had been hoping for chance for a long, relaxing snuggle with her fiancé ... mandated by the close press on the train ... but Ranma's lack of empathy in his human form had —

Nabiki froze, grin vanishing. Did she dare? Even if the goddess sitting across the table had brought her and Ranma together, however pure and kind she seemed, she _was_ a stranger. _But when am I going to get the chance to speak to a spirit this powerful again?_ Finally, she looked up at her hostess. "Belldandy, Ranma has been having an increasingly serious problem with spending time in his human form ... it's the lack of his — her, I guess — empathic sense, he feels vulnerable without it." She hesitated for a moment then forced herself to continue, blushing furiously. "Also, he can't ... perform ... in bed ... in human form. When Mara made her offer, she said she could fix that. Ranma turned her down, of course," — nonchalantly ignoring the part Cherry Blossom had played in that rejection — "but that doesn't mean he's happy about it. I've been thinking that his missing empathic sense is to blame for that, as well. Can you ... give him that empathy, or tell me how to do it?"

But Belldandy had begun shaking her head even before Nabiki finished. "I am very sorry. You are right about what Ranma needs to again become comfortable in human form, but outside of an assignment I am forbidden to interfere."

Nabiki's face fell and she sighed. "Well, thank you for that much. At least now I know what I need to do to get Ranma back to normal," she said, then frowned when Belldandy winced. "Don't I?"

Belldandy visibly struggled with herself for a moment, then her expression firmed. She asked, "Are you aware of how long Ranma is likely to live?"

"As long as she can manage," Nabiki replied, wondering what the goddess's point was. "Oh, his human form will grow old and die, but once her succubus form reaches full maturity that's it."

"Yes," Belldandy agreed, "unless something truly unfortunate happens, Ranma will have a _very_ long life as mortals see it — as a succubus. It will not matter how hard he fights against the ... the _nature_ of his new species, eventually he will be forced to accept it."

"And the longer he fights against it, the harder it will be to accept in the end? Is that what you're saying?"

"That, and he will have an easier time adjusting when he is younger, with fewer regrets. I believe the sooner Ranma accepts what will eventually be her only 'normal' the happier she will be."

Nabiki grimaced as she stared at the wall — that _wasn't_ what she wanted to hear, but considering the source ... "I'll ... think about it," she finally replied. Then, smiling slyly as she glanced at her hostess out of the corner of her eye, she asked, "You aren't going to get in trouble, are you? For 'intervening' outside of your assignment?"

"No," Belldandy assured her, "I didn't tell you anything you didn't already know, simply offer advice."

"But you had to ask me if I knew that Ranma's immortal, what were you going to do if I didn't?" When Belldandy didn't respond except to take another sip of her tea as her cheeks took on a faint tinge of pink, Nabiki found herself fighting back a giggling fit. _So even divine beings sometimes work around the rules_. For some inexplicable reason she suddenly felt much better about taking the goddess's advice.

Then there was another crash of shattering planks mixed with splashing water — _inside_ the house this time — following by a shouted "Hey!" in the high soprano of Ranma's succubus form.

Nabiki smiled ruefully. "I think this is the most fun Ranma's had since we met — at least, out of bed." Belldandy's faint blush blossomed, and Nabiki lost control of her giggles for a brief moment before she fought them back down. In a tightly controlled, breathless voice, she said, "It looks like Ranma will be taking the train home in succubus form. That'll make her happy." (And truth be told Nabiki as well, since she wouldn't have to keep on her toes to protect their fellow passengers from Ranma — and if Ranma merged with her, they could even 'talk'.) She bowed to Belldandy from where she sat and formally said, "My thanks for helping us return the scrolls, and the advice you've given."

Belldandy returned the bow. "I am honored — and happy — to have been able to assist you. Won't you stay to dine with us?"

"No, we have a long train ride home, and tomorrow's a school day. Besides," she added as she cocked her head, listening as a new, childishly high voice began berating her fiancé, "I suspect at least one of you will be happier to see our backs."

Belldandy sighed. "Perhaps, Skuld is young and cares greatly for her children, even if she will undoubtedly take advantage of the opportunity repairing them gives her to upgrade them. But I won't insist. My Father's blessing on you and Ranma, as you choose your future."

Nabiki shivered. "Thank you," she responded as she rose to her feet to go collect Ranma. She was _not_ going to ask just who Belldandy's father was, she suspected she wouldn't like the answer.

/oOo\

Ryoga felt his spirits lifting as he looked around — he thought the city park he found himself walking through looked family, and if he was right ... He walked through a ring of trees and smiled at the sight of scattered tents. He was home!

"Husband!"

His purple-tressed Second Wife darted out of one of the tents and bounded toward him, his ocean blue-tressed First Wife right behind her. He barely noticed Pa Fum, though, his eyes fixed on Xian Pu's rapidly approaching abundant, jiggling breasts in the same tight silks she'd worn when he'd first seen her. Then they slammed into his chest as she leaped up to throw her arms around his neck, her lips pressed down on his ... and he was out like a light.

/\

Xian Pu rolled off of her husband, now lying on his backpack flat on the ground, and growled at her First Wife.

Pa Fum was all but doubled over with laughter, and at Xian Pu's snarl she dropped to her knees. "I think you've ... invented a ... new technique!" she managed to gasp out in the Japanese they were now using almost exclusively, so that Xian Pu could better talk with their husband. "Might ... have trouble ... picking out who's vulnerable ... though."

Xian Pu pasted on a put-upon expression as she rose to her feet and strode over to offer her wife a hand, though she was hard pressed to keep her lips from curving into a pleased smile instead of a frown. While they were now sharing a combined bedroll (though so far for no more than sleeping, to Xian Pu's growing frustration), Pa Fum's natural shyness and low self-esteem had made her almost invisible except when she forced herself or Xian Pu made an effort to include her. The Amazon Champion was happy to see her nominal immediate superior in their village's family hierarchy slowly relaxing, coming out of her shell.

"Xian Pu think ... _I_ think ... there nobody vulnerable like Husband," she said as she pulled Pa Fum to her feet. Turning, she stared down at the Lost Boy. And this time, she had no trouble frowning. "I think he getting worse, not better," she finally said.

Pa Fum joined her, snuggling against her wife a little when Xian Pu's hand settled on her hip. But she was frowning as well. "You ... may be right," she finally said, "you didn't even need to flash your breasts at him to knock him out this time. This _could_ be a good thing, you know, a sign that he's more accepting of us as his wives?"

"If this keep up, he 'accepting us' mean not able to be in same room without knock out," Xian Pu rebutted. "Besides, how we get him used to us if he gone week at a time? We need speak to Great-Grandmother again."


	3. Not a Crossroads Deal

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

Gosunkugi was getting desperate. Better said, he was getting more desperate.

It had been almost a week since the botched summoning ritual had brought him to the attention of Gautrek, and it had been all he could do to talk the demon out of eventually tearing him limb from limb on the spot and depositing the pieces outside of his father's wards around the Gosunkugi home. He didn't know how his father had earned the demon's hatred, but it was intense.

In fact, the only thing that had prevented that grisly end had been a name, tossed into his frantic babbling as he tried to come up with something — anything — that he could trade for his life: Ranma.

That name had caught Gautrek's attention, and he had demanded everything Gosunkugi knew about the boy with the Jusenkyo-succubus curse. It had found Gosunkugi's story of his humiliation at the hands of that baseborn nobody amusing, and had promptly given Gosunkugi a way to avoid that grisly death, to which Gosunkugi had just as promptly agreed. — acquire Ranma in his succubus form, but instead of taking his own revenge turn him over to Gautrek. From the fire in the demon's eyes, he thought it hated Ranma even more than it hated Gosunkugi's father.

The problem was that in the few days since he hadn't been able to come up with a way to do that, and he was certain that sooner or later Gautrek was going to tire of waiting and simply take the revenge available to him as a consolation prize. Think, think, think! he thought as he glared daggers across the Furinkan High grounds to where that slut Nabiki and her sex toy (currently human) were enjoying their lunch under their usual tree. Okay, two problems. First, for some reason I haven't been able to summon Ranma even after Father broke Nabiki's Journeyman Curse. (Once he had finally guessed what Nabiki had done to him, he had swallowed his pride and asked his father for help. The amount of effort it took for the elder Gosunkugi to break the curse had been dismaying. Oh, his father hadn't found it unusual, had even commented on the sloppy effort for someone that powerful when he learned who had cursed him — but his father didn't know that she had cast the curse with no preparation or ceremony.) Second, even if I do manage to summon him, I'll have to break him to my will — alone. And I don't think I can. Even in the privacy of his thoughts, the admission was wrenching. But he was finally coming to understand his father's mantra of 'know your enemy' — and learning that a competent enemy could make the prospect of final victory even sweeter.

That was assuming that you actually achieved that victory, of course, and the ice at his core grew as he remembered yet again what Gautrek had threatened to do to him before tearing him limb from limb — it had made his own plans for Ranma's succubus form seem like a schoolboy's idle daydreams.

Nabiki's laughter drifted over to him, and his teeth ground together ... accompanied by a growl from nearby. Gosunkugi turned to find Kuno Tatewaki sitting on the grass a few yards away, also glaring at the couple, and his own snarl shifted to a grin as inspiration hit. Here was someone with resources he didn't have, who could perhaps provide answers where those incompetent imps couldn't... "Don't care much for the 'happy couple'?" he asked, making sure to add an ironic twist.

"A truly vile witch, to sport so lasciviously with that foul defiler of the pure and innocent, Tatsuno," Tatewaki replied, not taking his eyes of the couple.

Gosunkugi blinked, then looked around. He still couldn't see anyone else close to Nabiki and Ranma, and she was seemingly focused on her fiancé to the exclusion of everyone else. He looked back over at the lunatic beside him. "Who's Tatsuno?"

Tatewaki tore his gaze from the pair, and looked over at Gosunkugi. "So you haven't heard? I am surprised. The news has not yet come to the attention of the common herd, of course, but I would have thought that with your own ancient lineage and righteous fury toward those unworthy peasants you would know all that happens around them."

Gosunkugi stomped on his own rising anger at the jumped-up sword-swinger's condescending tone. "You have mistaken me for me for my father," he replied, fighting to keep his tone even. "I don't have access to his resources when I fight my own battles. So what's this about 'Tatsuno'?"

Tatewaki returned to glaring at his original targets. "Ranma's mother has demonstrated the depths of her depravity by divorcing her husband and taking his son, leaving him without an heir of his blood to carry on his name."

It was really that simple? Gosunkugi wondered in sudden enlightenment. Just a name change and suddenly he can't be summoned while a succubus? No, it can't be that easy, he must have rejected his father as well as the name, accepted his mother in his father's place wholeheartedly. He briefly considered just what it would take for someone to so completely reject his own father, before shrugging it off as pointless. He had his own concerns. So I now know how to summon Ranma, but that will do me no good if I cannot dominate him. So I need to learn his weaknesses, his fears. And the imps have proven practically worthless, it isn't worth it to add to my debt to them.

Gosunkugi continued to stare blindly at the oblivious Tatewaki as he wracked his brain for some alternative way to spy on Ranma without success, until sudden revelation hit — Tatewaki had known about Ranma's change of family, when no one else had. Tatewaki had resources Gosunkugi didn't. All he needed was to talk him into putting them to proper use.

"You know, it truly is a shame that Ranma should keep such a fair spirit enslaved," he mused. "I could possibly free her of the chains binding her to him, but Ranma's will is too strong."

Tatewaki's gaze snapped of him. "You know how to free her?"

Gosunkugi opened his mouth to boast of his skill in the Mystic Arts, and paused — he did not like the venom in Tatewaki's voice when he labelled Nabiki a 'vile witch'. Instead, he cautiously said, "I-I-I have some small skill in the Mysteries. But as I said, I can't beat Ranma until he's weakened. I need to know his fears, his vulnerabilities."

Tatewaki stared at him for a long moment, eyes hard, before giving him a curt nod. "Very well, I will learn that which you need, and you will free that fair spirit from her enslavement. But be warned, if you betray or harm her, there shall be no escaping my righteous fury."

Gosunkugi gulped, but nodded. "Of course, it is our duty to protect the innocent, after all." Tatewaki stared at him for another long moment, then without a word refocused on the happy couple and Gosunkugi scrambled away. He would have been offended at the curt dismissal, but was too happy to get away from the possibly violent upperclassman — Ranma and Nabiki had already given him one beating, he had no desire for another. He would have to study up on the Eye of Death Curse, then after Ranma was dealt with cast as powerful a one as he could. Tatewaki couldn't threaten him if he was dead, after all.

/oOo\

"We're home!" Nabiki called out as she, Ranma and Akane shucked off their street shoes for house slippers, a broad smile on her face — she had had a very good day. Ranma and Akane added their own announcements as Ranma headed for the stairs and Akane for the guest room she was currently occupying, both eager to change and head for the dojo for Akane's training (what she could do with her ankle still bound up, anyway).

As Nabiki started to follow Ranma, Kasumi hurried from the family room to intercept her, saying in a low voice, "Nabiki, Elder Cologne wishes to speak with you alone."

Cocking an eyebrow at her sister, Nabiki asked, "What about?" Whatever it was seemed to have perked up her big sis, the miasma of depression that had made it so uncomfortable for Nabiki and succubus Ranma of be around her had faded substantially.

"She didn't say." Kasumi replied as she led Nabiki back to the family room. The Amazon elder was sitting at the low table sipping tea. The elder sister bowed to Ku Lon. "Thank you for sharing your insights into your people's cuisine. I look forward to tomorrow's demonstration."

Ku Lon returned the bow from where she sat. "I too look forward to tomorrow, child, it is always a delight to teach one that truly seeks mastery of her Art."

As Kasumi left the room, Nabiki knelt across the table from Ku Lon and offered the elder more tea before pouring a cup for herself. After taking a sip, she set the cup down on its saucer. "As much as I would enjoy making small talk, Kasumi said you wanted to talk to me alone so we need to hurry. But first, thank you for taking Kasumi under your wing, it's helped her deal with last Saturday's fiasco."

"It is my pleasure," the diminutive elder replied. "If she continues as she is for a few more decades, she will be a true mistress of the Culinary Arts."

"True, she seems to have all the potential there and left none for Akane," Nabiki agreed with a slight smirk. "So, Elder Cologne, what can I do for you?"

"It is not so much your help I need as Ranma's," Ku Lon replied. "But from some comments you made over the past week as we prepared for Saturday's attempt at relieving your sister of her curse, I feel there may be ... issues with the form that help would take." She paused, but Nabiki simply motioned her to go on. "Our Wanderer returned yesterday, but ... you remember his issues with physical intimacy?"

"Oh, yes!" Nabiki replied with a broad grin. "Funniest thing I'd seen in months."

"Yes, well, the situation is quickly losing its humorous aspect — he's getting worse. Pa Fum believes that as the reality of his marriage has set in and his attachment to his wives grown stronger, the possibility of the sexual benefits have become more real to him."

Nabiki stiffened where she sat. "Wait, you aren't asking that Ranma sleep with him?" she demanded.

"Oh, no, not at all," Ku Lon hastened to assure her with a grin, "his wives would do their best to kill me if I did — and attempting to assault an Elder is a serious crime." Not that I didn't consider suggesting it, just for the entertainment value. "No," she continued as a relieved Nabiki lifted her tea cup for another sip, "what I wish is for Ranma to make use of her ability to manipulate dreams while granddaughter has her way with him."

Nabiki choked on her tea, and Ku Lon hastily hopped over the table to pound on her back as she hacked and coughed. When she could breathe again and a chuckling Ku Lon had returned to her own place, she said, "Well, that was unexpected. I assume you want Ranma to have Ryoga experience in his dream what's happening to him in reality?"

"Essentially correct," Ku Lon agreed.

"I see." Nabiki frowned thoughtfully. "This is going to be full intercourse? For Shampoo's first time?"

"Yes, though it's hardly her first time." Ku Lon shrugged. "Young warriors are a lusty lot, and Granddaughter has taken full advantage of the attentions she received for her acknowledged skill. She was most disappointed that only married warriors and their husbands came on this Hunt."

"Poor, deprived baby," Nabiki snarked.

Ku Lon chuckled. "It's good for her, not to have a man in her bed whenever she wishes — it'll prepare her for marriage to a Wanderer."

Nabiki smiled in bemusement at how different the Amazons were from the Japanese, then turned her attention Ku Lon's request. "There's a problem," she said after a moment. "Ranma has gotten quite skilled in dream manipulation — she often spends her nights in mine — but other than the first two times when we didn't really understand what was happening, none of them have involved sex." Her cheeks heated, but she pretended she wasn't blushing as she continued, "You know about his performance issues when male, and neither of us were experienced before so we don't know what it's actually like ... how much it differs from girl-girl."

"I see," Ku Lon mused. She considered the problem for a moment, then asked, "Has Ranma manipulated anyone else's dreams?"

"Yes, Akane's, when we were helping her understand Ranma's succubus nature."

"And does Ranma's ability to merge with others work in dreams?"

"Yes, it does," Nabiki replied, blushing again as she remembered the dream where they had tested out that possibility. It hadn't involved sex, exactly, but fondling her own dream body while Ranma possessed her certainly pushed the line they'd set. Fun, though, since Ranma had felt every touch, every shiver of pleasure — a brand-new way to punish her fiancé at need. And it'll work just as well awake, she thought, daydreaming of that cute redhead merging with her, filling her naked body, the spirit's moans sounding in her mind as she stroked herself, almost brought herself to orgasm...

She yanked her attention back to the Elder as Ku Lon spoke.

"Then I don't see the problem. Simply let her travel the dreams of those that do know how it differs." She frowned thoughtfully. "Actually, the truest experience would require merging with lovers in the act."

Nabiki instantly shook her head. "Not happening. We're at least trying to keep just what kind of nature spirit Ranma turns into a secret, and the only one of those who know that could ... provide the needed experience is her mother. Neither of them would be willing to go along with that. And before you ask, no, Ranma won't simply find some couple in the neighborhood that can't see her she can merge with. That's the kind of thing his father would do."

"Really?" Ku Lon cocked an eyebrow. "That's going to change eventually, you know."

"I know," Nabiki quietly agreed, "but not yet."

Ku Lon shrugged. "It still isn't a problem. Ranma's nature is common knowledge among the Amazons here, and all the warriors except Xian Pu are married. As I said, warriors are a lusty lot — when I announce what we need we'll have volunteers."

Nabiki opened her mouth to hotly reject the suggestion, but paused as she remembered a gentle face of ageless beauty, and the advice that goddess had given. She really wanted to reject the Elder's suggesting, but ... You're going to have to share Ranma sooner or later, given her nature. Better with people that won't be sticking around. And since her discussion with Belldandy she had been haunted by the image of a Ranma grown old, dying to become permanently what he had fought against all his life. Finally, she nodded. "That would work. I'm sure I can convince Ranma to go along," she slowly said, then went on more briskly, "So that leaves the matter of payment."

Ku Lon took a sip of her tea, then asked, "And what would you suggest?"

"Ranma's easy," Nabiki replied. "She's been adapting —" She broke off when she remembered that Ranma was no longer a Saotome, and so could conceivably be denied the use of what was after all a Family style. Genma didn't seem to be planning to do that any time soon, but why take chances? "Ah ... she's been developing a new martial arts style for her succubus form, but she's been hindered by the lack of a decent sparring partner that can actually see her. Akane's willing to help, but still healing from her injury in last week's competition with Kodachi. Besides, she ... lacks experience."

"Whereas I have an abundance of experience," Ku Lon finished. "I can not only act as a sparring partner but critique the techniques and offer suggestions. Yes, developing a style for someone of Ranma's unique nature will be a fascinating exercise, I would be happy to help."

Not to mention that you'll already be familiar with the style if you ever have to actually fight her, Nabiki thought. But that unlikely possibility was far outweighed by the advantages. "That leaves my payment," she continued.

"Yours?" Ku Lon repeated, eyebrow lifting again.

"Mine," Nabiki agreed. "You're asking me to share my fiancé, even convince her to go along with this. That will not be easy for me, in either case, and requires compensation."

"I see. So what payment would you require?"

Nabiki paused. What would she require? She couldn't imagine what the Amazons had that she'd want: all the cash they had she'd paid them, she was trying to get rid of her ill-gotten gains, and accepting cash felt too much like pimping out her fiancé; she had no desire to become a martial artist, and she had Ranma for a sensei if she changed her mind and Nodoka already training her in kenjutsu; she certainly had no desire to become a cook, and again, had Kasumi if she changed her mind. And why am I asking for payment, anyway? It's not like this isn't inevitable, anyway.

She was just to say as much, when another thought occurred to her — Ranma's adjustment to his succubus form wasn't the only long-term issue in their relationship. Instead she said, "With your village's proximity to Jusenkyo I imagine you have some experience with the springs there. How much water is needed for someone to be cursed?"

"Why do you wish to know?" the Elder asked, eyes narrowing.

Nabiki hesitated, but Ku Lon simply waited patiently and the middle Tendo finally said, "Because I may at some point in the future wish to become a succubus, myself."

Ku Lon's eyes widened in shock at the statement, then she began to chuckle. "Even if this journey does not accomplish it's ultimate purpose, I am glad to have come," she said with a smile. "I have not met so many delightful, unpredictable people in decades! Do you truly love him so much that you wish to share his fate?"

"In a manner of speaking." Nabiki hesitated again, then shrugged. "As a succubus Ranma is immortal, and I am not. I have no particular desire to become a succubus, but if I cannot find another means of achieving immortality it will have to do."

"I see." For a brief moment the Elder's thin smile turned wistful, then the moment was gone. "It only takes a barrel of water to inflict a curse, and the water only needs to be dumped over the victim — bathing in it is not required."

"Then that is my price — a barrel of water from the Spring of Drowned Succubus. Do we have a deal?"

Ku Lon considered the offer for a long moment, then nodded. "We have a deal."


	4. Shoring Up the Base

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

Akane groaned in pure pleasure as Ranma's hands moved along her back. The afternoon's training had been brutal, and she was well content to be lying naked on several towels spread on the tiles next to the furo with Ranma straddling her hips as his hands worked their magic.

She had been worried that her broken ankle meant that she wouldn't be able to train, but Ranma had pointed out that there might be fights where she wouldn't be able to maneuver: perhaps she'd been chained to one spot, or had someone behind her that she had to protect. And _then_ he'd noticed that she had a hole in her situational awareness — a _huge_ hole. Thanks to the daily mass assaults by the Hentai Horde her situational awareness was excellent, _so long as the potential attackers were within melee distance_. But since none of the Horde had used ranged attacks, she automatically classified anyone she wasn't focusing on that was more than a quick dash away as harmless.

The result of that revelation was a transforming splash of cool water, followed by the now floating naked redhead her sensei had become recruiting Peach Fuzz and as many more of the sprites currently enjoying Kasumi's gardening that wanted to 'play'. Akane had spent the afternoon rotating on her brace keeping one eye on the succubus as the redhead flew around the dojo, looking for an opportunity for a sudden 'sprint' at her for a touch. Her _other_ eye Akane had tried to keep on the sprites flying around, carrying stones they would periodically throw at her when they thought they could catch her by surprise. The only rule Ranma had laid down was that the sprites couldn't aim for her head, and the sprites proved to be surprisingly strong — those stones had _hurt_. By the end of training her situational awareness had noticeably improved, and she ached all over. Ranma's offer of a massage was accepted after only a brief hesitation.

Her hesitation before stripping naked in front of her once again male sensei didn't last much longer than when she accepted the massage; after all, when Ranma was a boy he might as well be a eunuch, and when she was a succubus Akane might as well not be wearing any clothes at all.

Akane was finding that there was something she hadn't considered, though — Ranma might be a functional eunuch but _she_ wasn't, and even staying away from her 'naughty' parts his hand were as wonderful as Nabiki had boasted. As a result, the damp spot on the towel underneath her hips wasn't just from her quick wash to get rid of the sweat, and the spot was growing.

"Should I be jealous?"

Akane tried to bolt upright, only for Ranma to grab her shoulders and gently push her back down. He complained, "Blast it Nabs, ya just ruined half my work!"

Nabiki smirked as she pushed herself upright and stepped into the room, sliding the door closed behind her. "I'm sure Akane is _so_ disappointed that you'll have to spend more time using those magic hands on her. Are you giving her the full treatment?"

Akane twisted and lifted herself up on one elbow. It only took her a moment of a furiously blushing Ranma's almost incoherent denials to realize what her sister meant, and Nabiki laughed when her now also blushing younger sister added her furious denunciation to the bedlam.

"Joke! Joke!" the middle Tendo asserted, holding up her hands, then sobered. "Though in a way, it's what I'm here about. While you were training I had a _really_ interesting discussion with Elder Cologne."

When she finished explaining the deal she'd agreed to pass on (leaving out any mention of Jusenkyo water), Akane just stared at her, shocked silent. Akane could not _believe_ that her older sister was actually ... actually ... _pimping out_ her fiancé!

Just as she was opening her mouth for an epic rant, Nabiki continued, "You know, Ranma, beyond getting a sensei of your own to help design your new style, this might actually help with the problems with your human form. One of them anyway." Glancing at Akane, she added, "Though that would mean little sis would have to give up her bare naked massages." She grinned when Akane blushed as red as Ranma's hair.

"Ya really think so? That it could help?" Ranma asked. "You're really okay with this?"

Nabiki shrugged. "It's not like you won't be doing this sort of thing sooner or later — with someone besides me, I mean. So sure, it's what you are."

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Great! Then I'll leave you to finish your massage, _my_ sensei should be home any moment. And you just know your mother is going to want to knock me around the dojo some more."

"Start over my massage, ya mean," Ranma grumbled as he gently pushed Akane back down onto the towels then shifted back up along her body. "Ya ruined what I'd gotten done."

Nabiki just laughed as she slid the door open and strode out.

As Ranma's hands started over again on Akane's neck and shoulders, she tried to force herself to relax and actually _think_ about the conversation she'd just listened to. Something just didn't seem right...

/oOo\

"What are you up to?"

Nabiki, sitting on her bed, continued staring out her window as she tried to ignore the sound of her younger sister's voice. She'd known Akane was there, of course, the girl's emotions were spiking all over the place — determination, anger, disgust, confusion, worry, fear, love ... Akane was a mess. But Nabiki had been hoping that she'd take the hint and go away when Nabiki didn't acknowledge her presence.

Really, all Nabiki wanted to do was go on staring out the window, like she'd been doing since Ranma had left almost fifteen minutes earlier. She liked to think of herself as a hardheaded girl (except whenever _that_ smile and its accompanying love-blast from a cute redhaired succubus threatened to melt her down into a puddle of happy goo), but apparently she'd been lying to herself. It didn't matter that Ranma didn't leave by the window, or that the window was facing the wrong way, or that the early night meant there wasn't much to see but streetlights even if it had been facing the right way. It was a window into night, and apparently that was symbolic enough. It seemed the study of _all_ the symbology behind mystic rituals that her sensei had her doing (when she wasn't doing schoolwork or getting beaten black-and-blue practicing kenjutsu) was bleeding over into her everyday perceptions. _I'm going to have to be careful about that_.

When it finally became clear that Akane wasn't going to leave, Nabiki turned on her bed to face her sister with a sigh. She asked, "What makes you think I'm up to something?"

Akane stepped into the room and walked over to sit on the chair in front of Nabiki's desk. "Because you actually involved me in that little discussion in the furo," she replied, her cheeks turning pink. "You've been pushing for me to ... become more accepting of Ranma's nature as a ... as a spirit, and you drop _that_ bombshell on me? You could have just waited until we were doing schoolwork and pulled him aside."

"Actually, I couldn't," Nabiki disagreed. "I wanted to catch Ranma in human form and while he tries — and he really has been getting better — him and schoolwork are an uneasy fit. Best to leave him to it."

Akane giggled her agreement with her sister's assessment, then asked, "And why did you want to talk to him in human form?" Then she laughed when Nabiki facepalmed. "Didn't mean to admit that? You're really off your center, aren't you? So why didn't you want to?"

Nabiki hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Because I was lying," she admitted. "Oh, not about the deal or anything like that," she hastily added at the blast of sudden anger from her sister, "just about it probably helping Ranma's sex drive when human. If Ranma had been in succubus form, she'd have read me like a book and never have bought it."

"Explain," Akane ground out through gritted teeth. "What do you _really_ want?"

"Ranma's happiness. Maybe, her sanity."

Akane's blazing anger vanished, swamped by shock. "What!? How? Why? He's seems fine, what's wrong?"

"Yes, I would like to know as well." Both girls looked toward the open door just as Nodoka stepped into view. She walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "You have been somewhat distracted — thoughtful — since your trip to Nekomi last Sunday. What is wrong with my son?"

Nabiki gulped at the stern expression on her sensei's face. _Suck it up, girl, she'll have to hear about this sooner or later_. "Right. Akane, remember how I said I wanted to keep Ranma sane and half-way human?"

Akane looked blank for a moment, then nodded.

"Well, I've pretty much given up on 'human' — now I'll just settle for sane." Nabiki quickly laid out the advice she'd received from Belldandy, though hinting that it was something she'd come up with herself — with mixed results. _Yeah, Akane's buying it_, she thought with carefully hidden satisfaction as she 'tasted' her interrogators' emotions, _she's still too willing to take things at face value. I wonder if Ranma has any stories from his years on the road that might help cure her of that?_

Nodoka though, from the suspicion still mixing with her concern, wasn't buying it for a minute. _Ah, well, she already knows there's at least one demon watching us, why not add some goddesses?_ Though wondering just why she and Ranma were so important in the larger scheme of things was enough to make her nauseous.

But the Tatsuno matriarch was apparently willing to put off further discussion for a more private moment. She simply said, "So you believe my son should adjust more rapidly to his secondary form?"

"That's just it, it _isn't_ his secondary form," Nabiki replied. "In fact, you don't really have a _son_, not anymore. Right now, that succubus form is the one he ... she ... is most comfortable with. You were the one that told me about the asexual nature of succubae, but I don't know if you really thought through what that means — I know _I_ didn't."

"Ah. Yes." Nodoka considered that for a few minutes. "So to sum this up, Ranma is more comfortable in succubus form, and you believe that should be encouraged — that Ranma should essentially become a succubus able to become human in preparation for the day that the human form is lost. Even if that means doing things that any human would be ostracized for, even arrested."

"Yeah, I do," Nabiki agreed. "And Akane, that's where you come in."

"Me?" her sister squeaked. She had been going pale and beet red by turns as concern and embarrassment had warred with each other throughout Nabiki's explanation, and now she paled again as a bolt of fear shot through her.

"Yes, you," Nabiki replied, unable to keep from grinning salaciously at her. She instantly sobered, though, when Akane began trembling with fearful disgust. "Sorry, sorry, just teasing, I'm not going to ask you to do anything perverted, or even sexual. Though it would do you good to loosen up a little."

"So what _are_ you asking?" Akane growled, flushing with embarrassment and trying to ignore her sister's advice.

Nabiki carefully considered her words, then said, "Akane, you've been ... confused. About Ranma and what she's going through. You've been better since your fight with that lunatic Kodachi, but still ..." She paused and waited for Akane's reluctant nod of agreement, then continued, "Just ... try to be accepting, at least of Ranma herself even if you can't be accepting of what she's doing, at least not all the time. Ranma hasn't gotten a lot of support in his life, and the fathers..." She left that statement unfinished, but her audience both nodded as they filled in the rest for themselves. Genma's emotions had been even more confused and scattershot than Akane's and it came out in how he treated his child, avoiding him one day and trying to pretend they were still on the road with each other and no one else the next, and her father had his head firmly stuck in the sand and was fighting hard to keep it there. "Anyway, for some reason that completely escapes me after the way you've treated him, he really likes you — maybe it's because you're his first student. If you turn on her _again_, she ... won't take it well."

Akane stared at her for a few moments, then muttered under her breath, "A lion is a lion."

Nabiki grinned — she was going to have to buy something _really_ nice for Kasumi for coining that phrase to comfort Akane after that nature show, it was proving _so_ useful. "Only this lion still thinks she's a lamb, and learning otherwise is just a _wee_ bit rough. So, _Princess_, can you do it?"

Akane blushed at hearing again the mocking epithet Nabiki had used, that day — was it really only a few weeks? — when she had ripped on Ranma for being a pervert, and Nabiki had returned the favor ... with interest. She took a deep breath and said firmly, "Yes. I can do it."

Nabiki's grin softened into a smile. "Thanks, little sis, it means a lot to me." Then she raised a hand to cover a prodigious yawn, then waved toward the door. "Now, git!" she ordered. "It's been a long day and will be longer before Ranma gets home. Besides, I think Nodoka wants to talk to me. Or is it Sensei?"

" 'Nodoka', in this case," the older woman replied. She watched Akane hurry from the room after making her 'good nights', and the pair listened to her footsteps down the hall to her room. Then Nodoka turned back to Nabiki, and without preamble asked, "I was under the impression that you were looking for ways to help Ranma stay more human, what happened in Nekomi to so radically change your mind?"


	5. Pushing the Limits

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

**Warning: high citrus content in this chapter!**

* * *

Tatewaki strode through his bedroom suite on the way to his large bathing room, already shedding the kote covering his hands and then his breastplate, followed by tare, hakama and keigoki as he went. Normally he would have been more caring of his kenjutsu training uniform rather than scattering them about for the servants to clean up, but with the meeting of the Kendo Club after school and his own practice after that it had been a long day and all he wanted to do was soak in his private hot tub.

Well, almost all.

He hissed in pained relief as he sank into the steaming water, turned on the jets, and leaned his head back against the headrest. "Sasuke!"

Several minutes later the tiny family ninja, dressed in the loose black garb of the ninja that myth called for, bustled into the bathing room. "Master Tatewaki called his humble servant?"

"Yes, I have a new assignment for you. You are to spy on Tatsuno Ranma and the fiery maiden that he has so brutally bound to him, and learn what terrors fill his heart, that we might weaken his will and free his slave."

"But master, when he has ... exchanged places with ... the fiery maiden, she cannot be seen. How am I to follow her and avoid her gaze?"

"I care not of the difficulties of your task, only that it be done. You have your orders!"

Sasuke dropped to his knees and touched his forehead to the tiled floor. "It will be done!"

"Of course." Tatewaki waved him away, and as Sasuke left the room turned his thoughts to the servants — more specifically, the more comely female servants. In the short time since her hiring Maruyama Mitsu had been making her willingness apparent in her flirtatious walk and come-hither smiles, a romp would be just the thing to prepare him for the night's slumber.

/\

Sasuke turned the corner to the servants' entrance, and stopped at the sight of his mistress waiting for him, dressed in a translucent robe over her lingerie, an embroidered velvet bag in one hand. "You have been instructed by my boorish brother to spy on the Tendo residence."

"Yes, Mistress," he instantly replied, wonder how she'd hacked his surveillance system _this_ time.

"I approve. We have a score to settle with the peasant that publicly humiliated me, and there _will_ be a day of reckoning! But you face the challenge of infiltrating a residence inhabited by beings invisible to the mortal eye." Opening the bag's ties, she reached in and pulled out a choker and held it out. "You may make use of this, for so long as your mission lasts. It will allow you to see those of the Other World, and so avoid their notice."

Sasuke's jaw dropped (thankfully hidden by the veil across his lower face). The glow of the dark stone in its silver setting wasn't just a trick of the light, the _power_ it radiated was greater than any item he'd ever seen — so great that even Sleepers such as his master and mistress must be able to sense it. If his young mistress was still a Sleeper, he couldn't tell thanks to the choker's radiance. _Perhaps avoiding Mistress Kodachi since her defeat was not the best decision_.

Accepting the choker in shaking hands, he dropped to his knees and fixed his eyes on the floor. "My mistress honors me far more than I deserve."

Kodachi waved off his statement. "I know, but the honor is incidental, the success of your mission is what matters. Do not fail us." With that, she strode past him toward her suite.

Sasuke waited until the sound of her footsteps faded into silence, then rose to his feet and slipped the choker into the pouch at his waist. It was good to have an excuse to hide his ability to see the supernatural, but he would have to be _very_ careful that the choker wasn't damaged — Kodachi wasn't as ... forgiving ... as her brother.

Pulling his black veil up from around his neck to cover his lower face, Sasuke slipped out the entrance and vanished into the night.

/oOo\

Ranma soared down toward the horizontal life-glows circled around a red-glowing fire pit that had to be the Amazons in the tents she couldn't see even hints of at that distance, one last barrel roll stretching the smile on her face as she felt the air pull at her red-skinned wings. She really should have gone straight to the encampment when she left the Tendos, but the night and her own nervousness had conspired to tempt her into a quick bout of aerobatics first.

Peach Fuzz whooped in Ranma's ear, her arms tightening around her neck, and the succubus's smile broadened even more. It seemed her first impression when she and Peach Fuzz made their short dives into the Voice while guarding Akane from Kodachi hadn't been flukes, the sprite really was a speed junkie. And by themselves, sprites weren't all that much faster than Ranma's succubus form without the wings.

Then she saw a gnomish-shaped life-glow hovering above the faint shine of the grass, that had to be one of the Amazon elders balanced on her staff, and her nervousness mixed with shame washed over her again — this was something her _father_ would do, not her! She muttered, "Why am I doing this?"

"Because Nabiki asked you to, and you can't say no to her any more than I can — and without a familiar bond as an excuse."

Ranma smiled at Nabiki's name. "Yeah, I guess so." But as distracting as happy thoughts of her lover were, it was brief — because from the resigned determination Nabiki had been feeling when they separated, Ranma doubted she had much faith this would work as she'd suggested ... and Ranma had no idea why she still wanted her lover to go through with this. _And yer chances a' figuring it out suck_. Because while Ranma might be the best martial artist in the world (his age, at least — or was, not that she'd say that out loud, and would be again once she figured out a new style to go with her succubus form), it hadn't taken him long to realize that in any other situation Nabiki so badly outclassed him it wasn't even a competition. And Nabiki didn't care all that much about martial arts. Thanks to their shared empathy she didn't doubt Nabiki's love for her, but sometimes she couldn't help but wonder _why_.

Then she stiffened as a thought struck her, and as she slowed to hover in front of Ku Lon and absorbed her wings, she whispered, "Peach Fuzz, is Nabs watching through your eyes?"

"No," Peach Fuzz murmured in her ear, and she relaxed again — this was going to be difficult enough without an audience — and refocused on Ku Lon shining with life in front of her. At three centuries of age the gnomish, elderly on display through her faintly green translucent robe wasn't exactly a delight to the eyes, but by now Ranma's eyes tended to slide right past such sights. More interesting was the way the staff she was balanced on glowed in the dark — like the wards over the Tendo household and the occasional building, apartment, even rooms Ranma had noticed scattered throughout the city, or the katanas that her mother and now Nabiki bore; only much more faint.

Ranma made a note to ask her mother about it later, and bowed shallowly where she floated. "Greetings, Elder."

The ancient gnome raised an eyebrow. "Being rather formal, are we?"

Ranma shrugged. "Ya hired me, I figured ya deserved some respect. Some."

Ku Lon chuckled as she twisted on her staff and began to pogo along, away from the camp. "You do know you will have to give me the true respect when I train you?"

"Yeah, I always do when I'm trainin'," Ranma replied as she caught up and floated along beside her. "Except for Pops, a' course. So how we gonna do this?"

"It isn't obvious? You possess a man while his wife is as amorous with him as you could possibly need."

"Uh, yeah ..." Ranma reached up, disturbing Peach Fuzz as she rubbed at her neck. "These guys _do_ know I'll be there, right? Wouldn't wanna be perving on 'em."

Now Ku Lon outright laughed. "You, my young friend, now 'perv' on people every day of your life. But you have no need to worry here, they not only volunteered, they are eager."

"They are? But _why_?"

"Fetishes come in many varieties, my young friend, and I imagine you'll eventually learn them all — Ru Kai and Heng Chu enjoy an audience, back in the village they've actually been punished several times for public indecency. And for the Joketsuzoku, that takes some doing."

"Got it." Ranma was glad it was night, the dark hiding her furious blush. Her blushing wasn't helped by Peach Fuzz's equally furious giggling.

Then the three approached another small grove, this one softly lit up by several lanterns scattered throughout. Inside the grove, a young Chinese couple seated on a spread out blanket looked up at their approach — or rather at _Ku Lon's_ approach, obviously unable to see the succubus and sprite. As they rose to their feet to bow, Ranma looked them over approvingly — while the blue-haired man was obviously no fighter he had kept himself in shape, and the sea-green-haired woman had both the weapons (two swords, in her case, across her back with a hilt over each shoulder, the dense steel barely translucent at all), the musculature, and the silky-smooth movements of a trained warrior. "Greetings, Elder," the female of the two said respectfully, though with a saucy grin. She ran a hand along the long braid lying along her neck and down between her breasts, as if petting one of the furry demons that sometimes haunted Ranma's sleep. "Have you brought our audience?"

Ranma fought back a shiver at the eagerness suffusing the pair's emotions. "Uh ... yeah, she did. Um ... she did tell ya how this's gonna work?"

The pair turned to bow in Ranma's general direction. "Yes," the woman replied, "you will possess my husband, and he will lie still while I have my way with him. And then Ryoga will be a _very_ lucky man—no less than _three_ lovely ladies lusting after his body! You _are_ lovely, aren't you?" She frowned and squinted exaggeratedly at the spot of to her empty air where Ranma's voice had come from, then giggled at Ranma's panicky, babbled denial at lusting after Ryoga's anything.

Ku Lon chuckled for a moment before saying, "Ranma, these are Ru Kai and Heng Chu," indicating the wife and husband, "your eager volunteers for tonight's training."

"Oh, yes," Ru Kai agreed. "We've never had an audience that could actually share the sensations and emotions of the act, we could not ask for a more intimate voyeur."

"Yes, I'm sure you all will have a wonderful time. I'll just let you all get to it." Ku Lon waved her farewells to the three and pogoed off into the dark (for the humans), chuckling to herself.

Ranma watched the Elder's life-glow move away, then jerked when the warrior spoke. "Let's get started." The pair turned away from the departing Elder they probably couldn't see anymore, and Heng Chun lay down on his back while Ru Kai started unbuckling the faintly visible harness for her swords. Her reddish nipples were already crinkling tight from her eager anticipation, the first shine of dampening folds between her legs (her sea-green hair was natural) were a counterpoint to the small tent Heng Chun's cock was building in his tight leather breeches — the visible signs of the growing lust they were feeling.

Ranma felt her own hunger beginning to rise in response. "Y-y-yeah, l-let me get in p-place." She blushed at the quiver in her voice, but the warrior simply smiled and waved toward her husband. Ranma took a deep breath (that she didn't really need) and turned, gently pushed Peach Fuzz off her shoulder, and drifted down toward the reclining Heng Chun — by now she was somewhat used to what passed for possession for her (she still couldn't actually take control, but trying would let whoever she was ... 'occupying' was a better term ... know what she wanted done) but had only occupied a few people, all female. Now she reached down to lay a hand on a well-muscled chest so different from the normal soft mounds, _reached_, and with the usual twisting feeling found herself looking at the world through Heng Chun's eyes.

"_Weird_," she thought absently as her host's lusty/loving gaze followed his wife's hands working at the ties and buckles of her harness and skimpy-cut, blue, thigh-length cheongsam. As always, Ranma felt oddly blind with her eyesight reverted to the ... solidity ... of his mortal body while still in her succubus form — the dark closing in with the life-glow's vanishing, clothes more sensed than seen before suddenly appearing...

Heng Chun twitched. "Ranma, was that you?"

"_Oh, yeah, sorry 'bout that._" Ranma instinctively tried to rub her neck under her shoulder-length hair, and Heng Chun twitched again when he felt the ... pressure ... to move his hand. "_Oops, sorry again._"

"Don't be, this is fascinating!"

Ru Kai had laid aside her weapon harness, and now her hands paused for a moment on the cheongsam's fastenings at her throat. "Ranma?"

"Yes, she's speaking in my mind."

"Interesting, but not what we're here for." Heng Chun's breath hitched as she wriggled out of the dress, leaving her naked except for her slippers, and Ranma felt her own hunger growing stronger with the sensation of his stiffening cock pressing against his tight pants. Ru Kai smiled saucily, striking a pose that froze her husband where he lay. "I'd say you still like what you see."

"Yesssss."

"_Yesssss._"

Heng Chun laughed, and at Ru Kai's inquiring look said, "Ranma is equally impressed."

"What, just this?" Ru Kai reached up to cup her breasts, flicking her thumbs across the hardened tips. "So let's give her something to _really_ be impressed with. Remember, keep your hands to yourself, this is all me."

She dropped to her knees, her fingers busy with the ties to her husband's breeches ... and Ranma realized she had a problem as a fresh wave of lust accompanied Heng Chun's groan at the sensation of Ru Kai's fingers slipping along his engorged cock. _Crap, that feels good, but Ryoga's not gonna feel any a' that! How'm I supposed to separate the emotions from the physical stuff?_ Heng Chun's eyes squeezed shut with another groan as his wife's tongue joined her fingers, sweeping the length of his cock and twirling around the mushroom tip to lick off beading pre-cum, and that just made things even worse. "_Open yer eyes!_"

Heng Chun's eyes snapped open. "Sorry about that."

"_Ya don't need ta be sorry, just don't do it_." Then at Ru Kai's inquiring look at her husband's apparently one-sided conversation, added, "_And ya don't need ta speak ta answer, just ... think hard_."

"_Think hard, riiiiight_."

Ru Kai had slipped her mouth down over as much of his cock as she could take in, her teeth gently scraping along his skin. As she began to bob her head, Ranma did her best to focus on every physical sensation as she watched: the warm, wet swirl of her tongue; the pressure as the occasional suck briefly hollowed her cheeks; her hand pumping his cock below her mouth; the way Heng Chun's hips twitched as he forced himself to _not_ thrust his hips up to meet her descending mouth — the rising pressure that was almost but not exactly the same as Ranma's own rising hunger. When this was over and Ranma returned to her lover they weren't going to be making love, Nabiki was going to get _fucked!_

Then Ru Kai, lifted her head, Heng Chun's cock pulling free from her mouth with a _pop_, and slowly swept her tongue across her lips as she shifted to crouch with her knees on each side of her husband's hips. "Enough of the pre-game show, time to play!"

"_Wha' ... ?_"

Heng Chun chuckled. "_We aren't _complete_ barbarians, there's actually a couple old televisions and video players in Nyucheizu. Each new tape of Japanese football is popular_."

"_Oooooh_."

Ranma barely managed to respond to her host's explanation, absently wondering how he could be so ... so _rational_ as the sensations of Ru Kai running the tip of his cock back and forth through the Amazon's wet folds and across the nub protruding from its hood washed through her.

Then in one swift move Ru Kai positioned Heng Chun's cock at the opening of her sheath and _dropped_, burying that iron rod hilt deep inside her. Ranma lost all coherent thought as the combined force of the physical sensations of the wet-hot vice gripping that rod and the pure _need_ from both Amazons hammered into her, simply riding the ever-mounting waves of pleasure and lust as Heng Chun's own _need_ grew every time his wife dropped to grind their groins together until his unbearable pressure _exploded_.

Ranma found herself floating next to the couple, her floating red tresses waving as she shook from overload. She watched almost uncomprehendingly as Ru Kai stiffened, head thrown back, mouth open in a soundless shriek, before falling forward to lie limply across her husband's body. Her own body gently rose and fell as Heng Chung hyperventilated.

Finally his breathing eased. "Ranma? Are you still here?"

"I ... yeah ... I ... wow! That ... incredible ..."

Ru Kai rolled off her husband to flop onto the blanket next to him, both bodies slick with sweat. She took his hand and gently squeezed while her other hand slid through her folds, coating itself in the milky fluid oozing from her sheath. Ranma felt her own shaking ease as she basked in the couple's love for each other.

Ru Kai smiled up towards the succubus's voice. "The best you've ever had?" she asked slyly, bubbling with good humor.

"Ah ... no, not really." Ranma found herself rubbing the back of her neck again. "Once me an' Nabs, uhhh ... knocked me out."

"Hard to beat that," Heng Chung said as he began to laugh, and his wife slapped his chest.

"Jerk. Of course that's better, she was with the girl she loves." Looking in Ranma's direction again, she continued, "So did we give you what you need? Because if you need more, Heng Chung ought to be _up_ to a repeat performance."

"N-n-no, I'm ... I'm good ... thanks, see ya later!" Ranma bolted straight up through the trees. Bursting out of the leafy cover like a breaching whale, she spun and twisted to fly along the tree tops, her red bat-wings snapping out.

"Hey, wait for me!" Ranma paused, twisting around and hovering as Peach Fuzz's life-glow popped out of the tree behind her. The sprite flew over and settled on her shoulder. "That was quick. That good, huh?"

"Uh, yeah..." Ranma's cheeks heated and she reached for her neck before snatching her hand down.

"Ooooh, you can still blush!" Peach Fuzz giggled. "That's still so weird, a blushing succubus ... so did you get what you needed?"

"Well ... not really." Ranma sighed, embarrassment forgotten. "It was all so overwhelming I couldn't focus on the physical side a' things."

"Oh. So what're you going to do?" Grinning, she leaned over and whispered in Ranma's ear, "You could do it again ... and again ... and again, until you aren't ... hungry, anymore."

"No!" Ranma could feel her cheeks heating again. "No, it, uh ... it doesn't help even if I'm ... ah, 'full'. After I got knocked out me an' Nabs tried. Being 'full' doesn't keep me from ... 'tasting' my ... 'meals'. No point in askin' for more." _Why am I blushing an' stammering so much? I was getting _better_ about this, I was! 'Course, till now the only person I've 'fed' from is Nabiki_...

"So that's a bust, then. So what are you going to do? You're going to want Elder Ku Lon's help with your style."

"I dunno." Hovering in the night air above the trees, Ranma started to slowly spin in place — she'd been told that fully grown succubus had few natural enemies, that most died shortly after being born (spawned?) and she'd skipped that stage, but that was no reason to become careless. "What I need is some way ta get the sex without the ... the ..."

After a few moments Peach Fuzz tugged on one of the tresses bleached of their fire by the moonlight. " 'The' _what_? What crazy idea popped into your head this time?"

Ranma winced as the tug yanked her out of her reverie. "Oh, right! ... You sprites feed off a' something plants radiate, right?"

"Yes, their excess life essences, especially flowering plants and trees, same as you do with sexual energy. So?"

"So ... can ya feed off a' that 'life essence' when you're diving in the Voice?"

"Of course not, the Voice is a ... a memory ... of course, why didn't I think of that?!"

Ranma grinned. "Hey, you're not slow, I'm just a genius! Ow!" She rubbed her head where Peach Fuzz had yanked on her hair again. "Why does that even hurt? It's not like this's a real body."

"Oh, it's real enough, it just isn't physical ... sort of... Whatever." Ranma felt her hair around her ear shift when Peach Fuzz shrugged. "Come on, let's get back to the house, we're going for a Dive!"

/\

Ranma lay on the Tendo lawn — floating, really, her natural state as a nature spirit, but at least her back was touching the grass even if her hair was floating about her head and drifting with the breeze (she _really_ needed to learn how to style or at least cut her hair as a succubus). She was staring up, through wall and floor at her lover stretched out on their bed. At that distance the succubus couldn't see the translucent image of whatever clothes Nabiki might be wearing, so she didn't know if the middle Tendo was still wearing the shorts and T-shirt she preferred outside of school or dressed for bed, but either way Nabiki was still awake.

For a moment she again considered letting Nabiki know she was back, before rejecting it — she wasn't done, after all. She glanced around at the sprites that had been browsing through Kasumi's flowers that Peach Fuzz had called over and were now circling the pair, then lifted her head slightly so, she could focus on her chest. Peach Fuzz lounged between her breasts, an arm on each mound like easy chair arms, bumble bee wings tickling the soft skin of the trough between. Ranma asked, "So how we doin' this?"

The tiny brunette shrugged. "The usual way. How much experience with the Voice do you have?"

"You mean besides not getting carried away by its music? Beyond the vision when I first met Cherry Blossom and our flights when we were bodyguarding Akane, just once when Gosunkugi summoned me." She quickly told of how she'd found herself back when she'd first met Nabiki, and how the vision had given her the hint she needed to deal with the would-be slaver and rapist. (She left out how she'd lost herself in the Voice just after, to get away from the memory of what Gosunkugi had wanted to do to her — not her proudest moment, and Peach Fuzz already knew about it anyway.)

"Wow," Peach Fuzz said when she finished, "the Voice really likes you — having it step in by itself like that is _rare_." She frowned for a moment, then shrugged again. "Something to tell Nabiki and your mom about later. Right now, we'll be doing the same thing only deliberately. Close your eyes and concentrate on the moment you want to go to, then let yourself ... 'fall into' the Voice."

"Just like that?" Ranma asked doubtfully — that seemed a little _too_ easy.

"Just like that, though you have to make sure you don't get swept away by the Song."

" 'The Song', right." Ranma gazed at her lover's familiar for a long moment, then closed her eyes with a sigh, and tried to follow her rather sketchy instructions. _Focus on _when_ and_ where_ you want ta go, and let yerself fall inta the Music. So just when do I want ta begin?_ She could feel her cheeks heating yet again as she thought about it. She didn't really need to experience the blow job again, _he'd_ already had that when Nabiki had tried to sleep with _him_ — it hadn't worked out, but at least Ranma knew what it felt like. _So, just after_. She concentrated on that moment, just before Ru Kai's mouth had _popped_ free of her husband's cock and she'd shifted to crouch over him. _There_. Ranma tried to fix the moment in her mind and relaxed to let the symphony of the Voice rise. Even with her eyes closed, her vision exploded in kaleidoscopic colors, she seemed to whirl about in the musical tide, then in a crescendo of Song slammed to a stop hard enough to take away the breath she didn't have.

"Wow, I'm _impressed_. I didn't expect you to get it on the first try."

Ranma opened her eyes to find herself floating above Heng Chun lying flat on the blanket, Ru Kai kneeling by him with her head bobbing and one hand between spread knees.

"Get in there, quick, before you lose the moment!"

Ranma turned her head to find Peach Blossom hovering by her shoulder. _But she was between ... how ... later, she's right, you gotta move_. The succubus twisted and dove down into Heng Chun.

The experience was decidedly odd — she could 'hear' the thoughts she'd exchanged with Heng Chun about the popularity of Japanese football, even sense _herself_, as stunned by the sensations and sex-hunger as she'd been.

And she could feel the wet heat of Ru Kai's folds as she crouched over her husband's groin, ran the tip of his iron-hard cock between her sopping folds, the Amazon's eager lust — and _this_ time the sensations, both emotional and physical, were crystal clear, without Ranma's own lust-hunger clouding her mind. _It worked!_ Oh, there was still the tide of the Voice singing in her mind, trying to sweep her away. But while it was louder, stronger than when she'd gone flying with Peach Fuzz, it was still easily resisted and alien enough that she could divorce it from what was happening.

Then Ru Kai positioned her husband's cock at the entrance to her sheath and _dropped_, and Ranma ignored everything else to focus on every sensation as she bounced — the tight, wet heat encompassing that iron rod, the way Ru Kai's muscles clenched and milked it as she rose and fell, the growing pressure as Heng Chun neared his own release, his balls tightening, then the _explosion_ as he fired his seed up into his wife, causing her to stiffen as her own orgasm exploded through her before falling forward onto his chest.

Pulling herself up out of her host, Ranma's eyes widened at the sight of _herself_, floating there shaking from the overload of what she'd just experienced. _Oh, right, a' course I'm here_. She ignored her shadow's embarrassed stammering as it thanked the pair for their help before fleeing up through the trees, instead looking around — and Peach Fuzz landed on her shoulder again.

"So, did you get what you needed?"

"Yeah, I did. It's not enough ta get creative with, but for a one-time shot for Ryoga's dreams it'll do just fine. So let's get — wait." Ranma stared down at the pair below her, now laughing softly as they talked over what had just happened. (She assumed since they'd switched to their native tongue, but she couldn't think of anything else they'd be laughing about at that moment.) Her cheeks heated at their amusement at how embarrassed she'd been, but she couldn't really fault them — she _had_ been a stuttering, blushing, practically incoherent mess. But it wasn't the incomprehensible conversation that held her in place, it was ... "Nabs."

"Nabiki?" Peach Fuzz repeated. "What about Nabiki?"

"_Nabiki's_ dreams."

"What's wrong with Nabiki's dreams?"

Ranma ignored the confused sprite, watching as things heated up again below, the pair apparently ready for round two even without an audience (that they knew of). Ru Kai was sliding down her husband's body, to lick his cock clean before lowering her mouth over the hardening rod, again bobbing, bobbing ...

"Whoa! She didn't do that before!" Peach Fuzz exclaimed as Ru Kai's lips slid down the full length of the hardened cock until her nose was pressed into the sparse pubic hair at its base. The sprite glanced sideways at Ranma's flaming face, smiling slyly. "She must not have wanted to overwhelm you on your first time ... so to speak."

Ranma felt her cheeks burn even hotter but continued to ignore the sprite, waiting ... and then Heng Chun grabbed his wife by the shoulders, pulling her up his body — and Ranma abandoned her hesitation and _dove_, slipping into Ru Kai's body even as Heng Chun rolled them both over. As the succubus settled into her new host, Ru Kai eagerly spread her knees wide to make room for her equally eager husband and a single thrust completely buried that iron rod in her seed-lubricated sheath.

Ranma silently _shrieked_ at the sensation of Ru Kai's inner walls stretching to accommodate their welcome intruder. She could not _believe_ how full she felt, as if the thrusting, pounding cock was trying to push through Ru Kai's womb into her stomach on the way to her throat, every vein seeming to imprint itself on the hot, wet walls for an instant at the bottom of each thrust — Nabiki's fingers had never felt like _that_, and Ranma wondered distantly is this was what Nabiki's _big_ dildo felt like.

Ranma pushed through the tide of new sensations to again become aware of the larger world to find that Ru Kai had wrapped her legs around Heng Chun's hips, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as she babbled in Mandarin. Then the muscles of her sheath started to rhythmically squeeze as if she was trying to milk the cock plundering her depths, he grunted, thrust _hard_, again, _again_ ... and Ru Kai shrieked as the sensation of a fresh wave of her husband's seed pumping into her depths took her over the edge and she _exploded_.

Ranma let the familiar wave of pleasure wash over her, carry her along for a moment before a fresh wave hammered her, and _another_, until Ru Kai slumped bonelessly, gasping for breath. Ranma waited as her host's breathing slowly eased, wanting to experience the full range of sensations. Though ... she frowned at the wet feeling of something oozing down along the crack of Ru Kai's ass. What could —

She flashed out of her host, hovering over the pair, shaking, so shocked she barely noticed their exhausted contentment. With a soft laugh Heng Chun rolled off his wife, and try as she might Ranma couldn't keep herself from looking — yes, that oozing wet had been the overflow of Heng Chun's seed spilling out around his cock rolling white down between Ru Kai's cheeks.

Ranma twisted and flew after her earlier self up through the trees into the night sky above, aimed at the moon.

She didn't climb far before she stopped, and Peach Fuzz quickly caught up with her, circling around the redhead curled into a ball, slowly wafting on the breeze. "Uh ... Ranma? What was _that_ about? Why ... ?"

" 'Cause a' Nabs," Ranma replied, her voice muffled. "The first couple a' times we shared dreams we didn't know what was going on, and ... we were in bedrooms, and I was a guy. But neither of us really know what it's like, with me as a guy. So we've been avoiding more a' them, but she wants me as a guy an' I can't ... perform, when human..."

"And you decided to find out what it's like for both of you, so you could at least be the guy in your dreams," Peach Fuzz finished when Ranma's voice trailed off. She sighed. "Moved a little too fast, did you? Got more than you were ready for?"

" ... Yeah."

"Well, what's done is done." Peach Fuzz abruptly darted in, and Ranma yelped, exploding out of her ball. The sprite giggled as Ranma glared at her, rubbing one ass cheek. "Come on, let's get home. You may have moved too fast, but now you can make my mistress a _very_ happy woman."

Ranma forced a grin. "Ya got that right! And you'll be enjoying every moment through your link with her, won't you?"

"You bet I will, Hot Stuff, and this time I'm not gonna let it knock me out!"

Ranma laughed, then closed her eyes. Letting the tide of the Voice rise up to wash away the World, she focused on Home: the cool night breeze, the grass beneath her back, Nabiki's naked backside above her lying on their bed...

The World snapped back into focus and her eyes snapped open at the sensation of unexpected weight on her stomach. There staring down at her over Peach Fuzz's stirring body resting between her breasts were two glowing slit eyes framed by white fur.

Ranma's _scream_ of pure terror woke up everyone in the Tendo household, and startled a sleepy imp so much it fell off of its perch in a tree across the street from the Tendo compound.


End file.
